Sunday, October 28, 2007

There's a slew of interesting, complimentary stories that have run in the Star the past few days on the state of the MLSE's profits (in a word: massive); their approach to scouting (in two words: horrifically cheap) and the wallets of the fan base (in three words: open for business)

In another must read, Ninja at Raking Leafs has pretty much covered off the key points and said everything that I was thinking.

Finding out that MLSE has a lifestyle that combines the best of Montgomery Burns and Ranier Wolfcastle is about as surprising as finding out another b-list celebrity "forgot" to wear gitch whilst getting out of her car.

That said, it's very disheartening that even a tiny slice of those profits aren't being redirected off-ice to make the Leafs better. The one advantage the Leafs still possess in a cap environment is the ability to outspend their rivals in off-ice activities such as scouting and player development. As a fan, I always hoped this was so - that this team was doing everything possible and was seeking out every competitive advantage to win. I suppose had I stepped back and looked at this club's history of drafting and developing players or had anyone (hello media?) just asked a few tough questions I would have known better...

In on-ice news, the Leafs beat the Rags 4-1 and Antropov just continues to pile on the points.

After this two-game trip, I'm looking for creative ways to keep the Leafs from playing the ACC again this season...

2 comments:

The trends are disturbing for this team, having witnessed the inexplicable 7-1 drubbing the Leafs absorbed from the Washington Capitals after two solid performances against NYR and Pittsburgh. This is a below average bunch on the best of nights and a corpse at home the rest of the time. Oh well *sigh* at least the business is doing well....